Fathers
by LostLittleGirl90
Summary: Two mutant girls meet one night, forming a bizzare and unlikley friendship based on the only thing they have in common, Revenge. Not OC's.Info Inside


**Fathers **

"Fathers, be good to your daughters / Daughters will love like you do."  
John Mayer

**Summary**: Two mutant girls find and form a bizarre and unlikely friendship, based on their thirst for revenge.  
**Warnings**: **A**lternate **T**imeline / some **S**wearing / some **V**iolence / possibly **O**ut **o**f **C**haracter  
**Disclaimer**: Characters are property of **Marvel**  
**Started; 27**/Oct./2005  
**Finished; 25**/Dec./2005

It was winter. Night to December the fifteenth to be exact, but winter none the less. And there was snow, like there always was outside Bayville around Christmas time. White crystals falling from the black sky, crystals that melted when they hit her face, leaving just drops of water to run down her cheeks. She had never seen or felt anything like it, the cold, yet there was something so beautiful and peaceful about this strange weather. She wasn't so sure she liked it. Her dark brown, almost black, hair was growing frizzy, the moisture of the snow falling on her head.  
-crack-  
She let out a low growl. Watchful green eyes scanned the forest floor, keenly taking in every movement of the person ripping a part branches on the ground below.

--

She was tired, so fucking tired, her legs and back aching. She didn't know how far she'd walked, endless miles upon miles of trudging through mud and snow, so cold she more than once had lost balance. Her black hair clung to her face, her eyes had circles that went halfway down her cheeks and her thin fingers looked frostbitten. And still it all seemed worth it.

She used whatever strength left to brake twigs and thin, dying branches to make a fire in a small dry spot, and she had no regrets. Now all that remained was to figure out how to create the fire itself. She doubted her powers would in any way come in handy as she tried to brake of a particularly difficult branch.

-Snikt-

In a blur of movement and a kick to the chest she landed on her back in the snow. The remains of the before mentioned branch lay scattered around her, but her attacker was nowhere to be seen. That didn't matter though, as the young girl had ways of her own to find the mystery person. Standing up she rubbed slightly over her chest. Who ever had attacked her was quite strong, though from what she had managed to see the person looked no bigger than her.

- "Who's there! Show yourself bitch!" she shouted as her hands began to glow.

--

X-23 let a rare smile tug at her lips as the strange girl's hands began to glow blue. The girl was a mutant, like herself. Maybe she had underestimated her. She watched as the girl tore one of the old, rotten trees up from the ground simply by sending rays of blue light at it and then moving her arms. X-23 was highly amused as she studied the black haired, pale skinned girl rip a part half of the trees surrounding her, always missing X's spot of course.  
'Soon.' she thought. Soon she would show herself to the girl, but like any well trained assassin would, she waited just a little bit longer, until she was sure of just what her new found foe could do.

--

"Come on! Do it!" Wanda Maximoff shouted, franticly searching every bit of her new made clearing for her attacker. "Show yourself, you fucking coward!"

That might possibly have been the last straw, and a very bad idea, as branches rustled and snow fell from a tree at her ten o'clock. She began to regret what she had done, stepping backwards until her back hit the bark of another tree. The glow around her hands was brighter than before, and some of the trees began to shake.  
But her attacker did not show.  
The glow from her hands faded. Had she imagined it all? Was she that screwed up in the head, to see and feel things so vividly when they weren't even there? She didn't give herself time to contemplate her own questions, instead she gathered the scattered twigs and prepared to make her small fire. Fact was that she would have to make camp here for the night, at least so that she could get a few hours of sleep. She needed it, whatever energy she could gather.

Another rustle of leaves and falling snow.

Before she even had time to process it, she found her self in an instinctive battle stance, forearms glowing. And then, right before someone sent a powerful kick to her upper back, she could hear a girl's voice mutter something.  
"Pathetic."

And it all went black.  
-

X-23 smirked, pleased with her achievement of creating a fire from the raven haired girl's twigs. Said girl lay a few feet away, face in the cold snow where X had left her after expertly kicking her in the spine so that she would lose consciousness. She hadn't even bothered to move her closer to the fire to keep warm.

'If she knows what's best for herself, she's dead already...' the green eyed girl thought bitterly, moving slightly closer to the flame. True, the girl was probably already dead from the cold. If X-23 needed to warm herself there was no way this sorry excuse of a mutant could survive the weather. (1)

Sadly, she didn't know how wrong she was. Though their mutations might have been complete opposites, neither powers had anything to do with their survival. The one thing that kept them going was the only thing they had in common, their longing for revenge against the men who were faulty in making them what they where.

--

Wanda's pulse was irregular, beating quickly at times and then slowing down so bad she felt ready to die. But then, for only seconds at a time, she grew strong again. Strong with hate and anger, and above all revenge. Strange how it kept her going, the same things that tears most people down and apart, makes them weak. No, she wasn't going to let him succeed, wasn't going to let him make her weak. That was what he had wanted all along.

_She was crying, kicking, screaming, trying everything she could to get loose from the hold of these strange arms. It was raining, pouring down on the pale child, pouring down on a cold October evening. Sparing one glace behind her she saw the tremendous grey building, towering and bowing over her, ready to swallow her whole. She hadn't meant to loose control, she hadn't. She didn't want to be sent away. She kept screaming._

"Daddy! Daddy please!"

"I'll be good! I won't do it again!"

"Please, I promise!"

He made no move to help her, the man she was screaming for, pleading. Her father, standing in the shadows, standing with closed eyes. Her father. Was she so terrible and disgusting that he couldn't even look at her? And the little boy, her own brother, **twin** brother, who just stood there, staring at the ground. This tiny little person who grew smaller by the second as the building behind devoured her further.

The walls closed in on her as she was lifted of her feet, her breath came as a series of gasps and sobs. Eyes widening, she let out a piercing scream as the doors of the Selick DiNovi Home for the Chemically Imbalanced slammed closed in her face.

Wanda awoke at once, her whole body glowing.

--

X-23 spun around at the noise, a loud and sharp intake of breath rung through the small clearing. 'Stupid bitch...' she glared as she approached the other girl's body, though motionless, glowing brighter than the lights from those strange machines at Hydra. 'Should have killed you...' she scolded herself in anger.

Well, X-23 didn't **really** want to kill her, at least, she didn't think she wanted too. But she couldn't risk anyone seeing her. They were still out there, looking for her. Now she would have to waste more energy on this pathetic being.

"Get up." she spat at the body, kicking at the ribs so that she turned, groaned, lying on her back. The girl coughed several times, a small trail of blood running from her lips. But she did not move on her own accord.

"Fine." X growled, and got down, one knee in the snow, the other on the girl's chest. Pale blue, almost grey, eyes opened slowly, meeting X-23's menacing green. Forming a fist with her right hand and grabbing the girl's head by the hair with the other X levelled their faces.

-Snikt-

Two metal 'claws' popped out from her right hand as she held it threateningly in front of the stranger's face. The girl gasped, tried to wriggle out of her grasp. X chuckled at the girl's struggling, even loosened her grip a bit. Like she could overpower her...  
"Let me go, or..." the girl hissed threateningly as every tree in sight began to shake.  
"Or...what?" One of the two claws grew longer, until it was less than an inch from one of the blue eyes.

-

Wanda's head was a blur. She felt so weak, yet so angry at the same time. She wanted to kill this strange brown haired girl, yet she was silently praying that this green eyed mutant would kill her. So she lay there silently as the girl pushed her knee further down on her chest.

"Don't..." it wasn't a plea, but an order spat from her blood covered lips. As much as she wanted it to end, the part of her that was still a screaming and kicking little girl wouldn't let her. The same little girl with powers so strong and dangerous her own father had locked her away. That little girl wasn't going down without a fight.  
"If you want to kill me, do it fair!... I want to know who my killer is, and I want to fight her to the death."  
Green eyes widened for a split second. Her attacker had let herself go for long enough. Wanda could tell she was contemplating it. And for a split second Wanda had seen in her eyes something she thought she would never see anywhere but her mirror.  
"Fine." the strange creature grunted in response.

--

X-23 had been pleasantly surprised. She had expected this girl to plead for her life, not to ask for her to take it. Oh well, it wouldn't take her too long until she would. And once she got her hands on **him**, he would be begging for his life too.

_The computers were beeping, random pictures flashing on the screen. A girl was standing in front of them, watching images of herself destroying a dusin robots in a blur of movements. Then the pictures disappeared. The girl had accidentally pressed one of the many buttons and a picture of a man came up. Momentary confusion lined her face as she read the little information known about him. She pressed another one and a new video appeared. She stared at the man, how he moved, how he attacked. She growled. _

-Snikt-

"Who is he!" the young girl growled, holding the woman by the front of her white lab coat, her feet dangling above the ground. As a response to her silence X threw the woman into the nearby concrete wall.  
"X-23, calm down...Please, calm down..." the woman said, panting and trying to get up of the floor, as X approached her with an animalistic glint in her now red eyes. Two claws popped out of each of her hands and one from each foot.  
"Tell me who he is!" she shouted, kicking the doctor in the stomach and sending her flying across the room.  
She had the doctor corned now, doctor Sarah Kinney. X-23 raised one hand, her claws dangerously near the woman's throat.  
"Please...Don't...You're not a killer!"  
The woman's eyes filled with tears. There was no one around to stop her, this thing, this weapon she had created, from her own womb.  
"Not a monster..." Sarah cried. They were the monsters, taking her childhood, ripping her claws out one by one and then putting them back covered in Adamantium... And it had been her suggestion all along, Sarah Kinney had indirectly ripped the child's innocence away, like she had had her own ripped from her... And as she gazed at the girl she saw herself.  
"Laura cough> your name.. Laura.." she managed to get out, clutching her bleeding stomach.  
X-23 blinked, her eyes turning back to their natural green. She blinked again, several times actually, as though the mere mention of that name woke her from a trance. She stared at the woman before her, confused at first, and then she remembered the video. Her eyes turned red again.  
"Who...Is...He...?" she dragged out each word, making sure the message came across to the doctor. The woman swallowed hard. She had no choice.  
"You...You're his clone..." the doctor whispered, her voice weak, defeated.  
Furious, X threw her across the room again before pouncing on her and, with her claws, pinning her down to the floor through her shoulders. The woman screamed in a pain unimaginable, throwing her head even further backwards.  
"You cloned me?" X-23's voice came out in a low growl, filled with hate and malice.  
"We. We cloned you...From his DNA...Ahh!" the woman's head trashed from side to side.  
"How?"  
"We cloned you to have his ability...urgh...To heal...His bone claws.." she stopped, gasping in pain. "When you were old enough...Old enough, we put you through the process...Laura..."  
"Who is he!"  
When she didn't receive an answer X pushed her claws deeper into the woman's shoulders, received by one final gasp for air before the woman went limp.  
The sound reached her already sensitive ears and she jerked backwards.  
"No..." she whispered, slowly realising what she had done. "Please, no..."

Sirens where beginning to go off, and she could hear footsteps approaching. The last thing she did before leaving the dead body, X ripped off the access card hanging around her mother's neck. She would find this man, no matter what.

--

Wanda Maximoff took her time getting on her feet. The blood had dried on her lips, but the taste of it was still in her mouth, and her ribs, well, she doubted they had come out of this without a scratch. She was certain she had heard them cracking.

On the other side of the clearing X-23 was cracking her knuckles as she stared at her opponent, murderous contempt in her green eyes. The girl was taking to long, suspiciously long. Even more suspiciously, the girl moved and sat down in the exact same spot as X in front of the still-burning fire.

- "Sit." the girl's voice cut through the silence that had ruled their battlefield since X had let her up off the ground.  
X-23 only response was a growl.  
- "I said I wanted to know who you are. Now sit." Wanda's voice had suddenly grown darker, her forearms glowing brighter than the campfire.  
"You don't tell me what to do." X hissed, her claws popping out in a split second.  
"In this case," Wanda glared at her, "I do! Now sit!"

The branch of a tree broke off and flew towards the dark brown haired, younger girl. She ducked it, with reflecses unlike anything Wanda had ever seen. She hadn't actually meant to attack the stranger, she just had. The fact that she had no control over her powers had just proven itself true. And as X-23 pounced on her, she let out a roar of anger. Her father had been right all along.

--

Neither of them knew exactly how it had happened. One second X-23 was an inch from slitting Wanda's throat, the next the black haired girl had her pressed up against a tree, a glowing branch holding her there.

As X struggled to get loose Wanda tried to regain her breath while still holding the other mutant in place. The girl was really scaring her. Never had Wanda met a girl so intent on murder, a girl who could produce metal claws from her body nor a girl whose eyes could go from green, to red.

"We're going to do this my way." Wanda said, still panting. "I'll let you go, if you don't attack me... If you talk to me."  
The other mutant growled and Wanda shuddered at the sound.  
"Why should I!"  
"Because I could kill you, if I wanted to."

Her eyes had gone green now, and she laughed. It was sickening to hear her laugh. The way she did, it wasn't human. But then again, neither of them were.

"You couldn't kill me even if you had the power to do it." she hissed. "You're too afraid to. You're the only coward here."  
"You're wrong." Wanda said, taking steps forward until her face was only inches away. "I'm not afraid. I could kill you if I wanted to. But not today."  
"I can **smell** your fear." her voice came out so hard, so threatening.  
It was Wanda's turn to laugh and she loosened the pressure of the branch pressed against her attackers chest.  
"Don't you want to know why I won't kill you today?" she asked.

The girl said nothing, her face was simply blank. Wanda moved her head even closer, too close even. The other girl felt something new then. The feeling of being uncomfortable.

"Because I don't intend for you to be my first kill." Wanda whispered, warm breath playing against the strangers face. And then she moved back again.  
"I've lost count of my kills." the other admitted slowly. "But I can see why you wait. The first feel of blood on your hands, it's unlike anything else."  
A terrifying glint had appeared in her eyes. So terrifying, in fact, that Wanda reeled backwards, stumbling to the ground. And as she did, she noticed...something. The other laughed again.

"You expect me to believe you're going to kill someone..." something followed, muttered so quietly Wanda couldn't catch it.  
"Who, are you?" Wanda asked, almost breathless.  
"None of your business... Now let me down, girl."

Wanda shook her head and got up. In one swift arm movement she ripped a barely visible dog tag off from around the younger girl's neck. She, of course, reacted by struggling even more and Wanda had to push the branch harder against her to keep her still.

"That doesn't fucking belong to you!" she hollered as Wanda held the dog tag up, examining it. There was serial number on it, but no real name. All it read was **X-23**.  
"X-23..." Wanda repeated silently. "What is that?" she asked, turning to face the girl.  
"Mine!" the girl shouted.  
"Tell me what it means." Wanda said, pressing the branch tight against the girl's throat. A silence followed. "Tell me, and I'll tell you who my first kill will be."  
"It's me." the girl replied, hoarsely.  
"You?" Wanda stared at the dog tag.  
"You have a problem with that bitch?" she hissed.  
"No. But I don't believe that's your real name." Wanda said silently, letting the branch drop to the snow-covered ground. She walked over to the extinguished camp-fire and sat down.  
"Do you think you could get this going again?" she asked X-23.  
"Why should I?" X asked, arms crossed over her chest.  
"Because we're going to talk."

--:---

They sat across from each other, a newly born flame a few feet keeping them apart. X-23 was less than pleased, yet the raven haired girl sat smiling.  
- "I'm Wanda, Wanda Maximoff." she said. "And I'm here to kill my father."  
X was unmoved by the new information on her opponent. She didn't care who the girl was or why she was here. She wanted to get what she came to Bayville for done, and then... well, she didn't really know where she would go then. She just knew she couldn't go back to HYDRA, she **wouldn't** go back there.  
"Are you going to tell me your real name?" Wanda asked.  
"What if I don't have any other name?" X-23 said, her voice bitter but there was an almost triumphant look on her face. She raised an eyebrow. "Why kill your father?"  
"I asked you first." There was a pause. "Talk to me, please..."

She would have laughed at how the girl almost begged to know, had the situation been different, had life been a bit different.

_Sarah gripped her wrist, holding her arm out stretched. Blood was running down the length of the girl's arm, running from several straight cuts over her skin.__  
"Why are you doing this?"  
X didn't answer her, just clutched her knees tighter against her chest. The little boy's eyes, those huge blue eyes with flames reflecting in them, were haunting her.  
"Please, just ...Just tell me why ...I can't help you if you don't talk to __me.__" she whispered._

"...I'm here to kill a man too." X offered, hoping to steer the conversation away from her name. She didn't know why, but she didn't feel like discussing it. It was confusing, her name. All her life people had called her X-23. Everyone except that doctor, Sarah, the one who claimed to be her mother. She told X her real name only moments before she died. Before she killed her.

"Who is he?" Wanda asked as, inwardly, X smiled. It had worked so easily.  
"My clone. Or, I am his clone." her face stayed frozen as she spoke. There was no emotion what-so-ever. She didn't know what she felt for it. She knew she hated **him** but, it was all so confusing. She had been raised to handle murder in cold blood, not to have emotions and feelings of her own. "It's his fault...That I am this, thing." She held her hand up, talking about her steel claws.  
"So he's like your father." Wanda told her. Silence and contemplation followed. "Technically, we're both out to kill the men that made us the monsters we are." she said softly.

X was unsure of how she felt about being called a monster, but she made no sign of being angry.  
"Why are you after your father?" she asked Wanda silently.  
"He sent me away, to a mental hospital. I was eight, already too powerful a mutant for him to handle. He gave up on me." she paused. "And now I'm going to make him pay for it. He ruined my life."

Her hands began glowing again.  
X nodded. In some twisted way she understood how Wanda felt, the betrayal and hate for the people who should have loved them. The need to make them suffer, like they had suffered at these peoples hands. The craving for satisfaction that could only be received when those people lay gasping and pleading, like the dear doctor had.

"I want to make a pact... With you." Wanda whispered. "That we meet here again when we've killed both of them. And that we leave again together."  
X-23 contemplated the suggestion quietly. For nearly five minutes she sat in silence, staring at the fire. Only thirty minutes ago she had tried to kill this black haired girl, and now the same girl was offering her some form of understanding. A form of...friendship. She didn't know what to say. What does a person say when offered something like this? Not thinking twice, she got up and stuck her hand out.

--

"Six months. And then we'll meet again."  
Wanda nodded and stood up as well. She was trying her best to force back a smile, the first smile in years. It had become so natural not to be happy. But now, she didn't know what natural was anymore. So, instead of taking X's hand she reached out and hugged her tightly.

She could hear X's breath hitch in her throat. She probably couldn't remember the last time she had been hugged, and for a moment Wanda regretted her actions. But slowly X raised her arms up and hugged back. It felt weird, being hugged, Wanda thought, but in a strange and good way. It felt like friendship should, she later decided.

Then X let go, and Wanda felt a sudden urge to just keep her arms around her anyway. But she didn't, she let go only seconds later, and X made her way towards the forest.

Wanda stared at the ground instead of her retreating back. It was odd, how she had once, four or five years ago, sworn never to get attached to anyone and now, after half an hour, she wished she could go with X-23 instead of on her own. She balled her fists up, digging her nails into her palms, just to stop herself from following the strange girl.

"Hey Wanda?"  
It was X's voice that cut through the silence, catching Wanda's attention. She looked up, X was looking back at her, standing at the border where the clearing once again turned into a mass of snow-covered trees. Wanda wanted to say something, but couldn't think of anything. Instead she smiled and waved. And just before she took off running into the forest X-23 shouted;

"My name is Laura Kinney!"

--------  
(1)I know X-23 could probably hear Wanda's breathing but under the circumstances I don't think she would have cared much to listening.

---  
Man, I hate the HTML editing thing when you upload on a MAC... Re-posting this after editing using Windows.  
---

Okay, so I've taken some liberties here. A lot actually, especially concerning X-23. Her past and stuff is a mixture between the X-23 episode and the X-23 origin series, and then some stuff I've tweaked a bit. (If you've read **X-23** you'll probably recognize it.)  
About her eyes; At first I thought X's eyes went red when she got **really **angry. Turns out it's a certain scent that triggers her. Just so you know.

More information about X-23; www/x-23/org and www/x23/lunar-tears/org (replace / with . )  
And I highly recommend both the **X-23** and the **NYX** series.

On to the story;  
The ending was a bit sudden wasn't it? I wanted to give it more flesh, but I didn't want either of them to become too emotional. (not that they weren't a bit emotional towards the end…) Any advice you have is very welcome!

Anyway, please leave a review of any size, shape or form and tell me what you think. **Merry Christmas** (and other holidays celebrated this time of year!), and **Happy New Year**!


End file.
